I'm gonna try something different here. Taking a cue from the "Release Early, Release Often" methodology, I'm going to document my progress on a new game with actual playable releases. Historically this would've been difficult since I use Direct3D, and in order to guarantee compatibility, I would have had to build an installer for every release.

Since I recently implemented a patching solution, though, I can provide updates at runtime without requiring a fresh install, so long as I don't change D3D versions. My initial goal with this solution was to be able to patch games post-release, but then it occurred to me that I could also push out pre-release updates and get more immediate feedback. So that's what I'm doing, starting right now.

Thanks! I'm trying to reuse as much old tech as possible; a lot of the core menu code goes all the way back to 2008 (though most of the existing functionality is only a few months old), and the CRT simulation is from my ABGIC entry last year, except now I'm rendering 3D geometry to it.

I'm interested in finding the right balance between a lo-fi presentation and compelling mechanics. By limiting the screen space to a small virtual resolution (256x192), I can't rely too heavily on text, which means I can't have much narrative.

Ideally, I'd like the moment-to-moment gameplay to be fairly minimal and uninhibited...I want the primary emphasis to be on exploration and combat, so the vast majority of the game should just involve moving and attacking. But under the hood, there should be more complex simulations driving the game experience in ways which are abstracted but not completely hidden, such that they are learnable but don't interfere with the core gameplay or detract from initial accessibility.

Monday, May 23, 2:00 AM:Stubbed out an enemy and weapon sprite. No AI or gameplay yet, the snake just moves in a circle through walls and that's it. Not super happy about the attack animation; it feels a little too "Colin's Bear" to me. But it's better than nothing.

Been working on dungeon generation. Pretty simple algorithm, just splits regions along an axis, adds a door somewhere along the edge, and recurses down each side until it can't go any further or decides the room is small enough. Probably going to add some further refinements to make it look a little more irregular, but I'm pretty happy with how this has turned out so far.